+ Fox News’s Dr. Keith Ablow says that “As a psychiatrist who has helped adolescents and adults make sense of their sexuality, I am convinced that, for many people, environment and social influences do indeed impact sexual desires and sexual behavior.” He does this to liken the condition of homosexuality to that of pedophiles, who apparently become pedophiles because Vogue uses very young sexualized models, just like all the people who become transgender after seeing Chaz Bono on the teevee. Really honestly, that’s what his thing is about. Read it.

+ New Balance got into some trouble when it was revealed that their Chairman Jim Davis made a private donation of $500,000 to Mitt Romney. It’s now released a letter on its facebook page to re-state its position on gay rights and distance themselves from Davis’s donation.

When asked about New York’s passage of marriage equality, Coulter said that if she were to say something good about it, it would be that “[m]aybe they will shut up about it,” adding, “I want ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ for all of society.” … “I not only don’t want open gays in the military, I don’t want open girls in the military. That’s the issue I told the conservative gays to take up.” Asked who she wants in the military, Coulter said, “Heterosexual men. The same sort of men who can be firemen.”

It’s just really sad, in 2011, to watch the republican candidates go off like that about gay relationships and equate them to polygamy and whatnot. (I think the saddest part of that video was when the room of audience immediately applauded when Romney? stated that a marriage must be defined again on a federal level to be between a man and a woman.)

That video was also played on Democracy Now! today during an interview with a gay couple – one of them is a U.S. citizen, another an Australian who is about to be deported. The U.S. citizen has AIDS and his primary care-taker is his husband, but as of now they only have until August 28th or something until he could be sent back to Australia. Here’s the link to the interview: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/12/aids_afflicted_us_citizen_urges_obama

No worries. A motion is being brought forward in the Riksdag. 6 out of 8 parties oppose the law and they hold 310 out of 349 seats or roughly a 90% majority. The two wacko parties, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish Democrats (who are against abortion and immigrants respectively) have little to no say in social matters of this kind.

Also: all NYC public middle and high schools didn’t ALREADY have sex ed? Am I the only one who finds that highly surprising?

And ALSO: it is so absurd that parents get to opt their children out of lessons on birth control. There is zero wrong with teaching a kids about birth control methods; there is so much wrong with willfully withholding that information.

Someone I know works in schools, and was telling me about a kid who didn’t know how to put a condom on, and was actually trying to fit his testicles into the condom. And people can’t figure out why kids are getting pregnant. I wish people would wake up.

I’m surprised as well; I’m from NZ and Sex Ed classes are a rite of passage for year 11 (or 5th form) students. I guess I thought NY was more progressive in that sense. However, thank god they do now, at least, because shit, what ignorance we’re breeding by witholding that kind of information.

This is the kind of the thing that makes me worry about the future of this country. Not only because they are so vehemently opposed to same-sex marriages, but because these comments are indicative of a level of hatred and discrimination that I truly cannot understand. Instead of wanting people to have loving relationships regardless of their gender and number of partners, these candidates want to control the lives and experiences of all those that differ from their ideal of a monogamous, heterosexual couple.

I wondered too. Apparently she swam in a shark cage before–I thought there was a cage along side her for safety. I googled for awhile because I can’t figure out how that would work but I didn’t find anything. The only thing I can think of is that it is pulled along as one swims? Maybe Diver can help….

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